Materials

Whether it’s Facebook or Twitter, Google Docs or Evernote, new technology applications have legal and operational effects on schools. The impact of new technologies and apps are especially important for one-to-one and BYOD schools.

Cloud computing applications pose additional legal complications. We have been asked to offer training sessions to help districts identify the issues in these sorts of new technological applications, and to determine the proper oversight when contemplating a new technology, so take advantage of this easy way to get the answers you are looking for.

Topics Covered:

• COPPA and CIPA issues
• Copyright issues
• Contract issues
• Potential consequences for failure to monitor

With the new school year just around the corner and the legislature’s recent passing of House Bill 3033, there are several essential Texas Public Information Act updates that require your District’s immediate attention. Please join us in a brief half-hour webinar as we discuss what actions your District must take to ensure compliance with the TPIA’s brand new requirements relating to response timelines under House Bill 3033. This webinar will also share options, a draft resolution, useful tips and common pitfalls in your District’s handling of public information requests.

The session provides both new and experienced Trustees with essential knowledge regarding school construction procurement. We cover the Board’s responsibilities in construction procurement and provide essential information to help each trustee to make the best decision for their school district.

Topics include:

• Selection of Construction Methods
• Hiring Architects
• Hiring Contractors

We also discuss basic ethical requirements of a Trustee in connection with the construction procurement process.

This webcast is presented by David P. Hansen.

Trustees will receive 1 hour CPE credit.

The May trustee election will be here soon! This webinar will review important steps and deadlines in a trustee election.  We will review: ballot creation, challenges to candidacy, polling place rules, election judges, working with your county elections division, canvassing the votes, conflicts of interest, and canceling an election.

Two’s company and three’s a crowd, especially under the Public Information Act. Everything gets more complicated when a third party’s information has been requested under the PIA, but this 30-minute essentials training will teach you how to deal with that unwanted third wheel. Learn how and when you need to notify third parties, why you might want to keep their information confidential, and how to navigate a PIA request involving confidential third-party information.

The May elections are coming soon, and requests for election documents under the Public Information Act are coming even sooner. Elect to keep yourself up-to date with this 30-minute essentials training! Your ballot applications, campaign finance reports, voter records and other election documents have loads of confidential information, and during this webcast you’ll learn about the PIA and Election Code requirements you need to know when dealing with requests for those documents.

You can bet that bidders will bristle when they’ve been out-bid, but thanks to the Public Information Act, their bark is worse than their bite. Buy yourself some peace of mind with this 30-minute essentials training, which will cover the basics of PIA requests for bidding documents. Learn when and why you can sometimes keep documents confidential to protect your bargaining position, and what you’ll need to do when the bitter bidder requests any and all documents relating to the better bids.

Designed especially for Superintendent Secretaries who need to be in the office, our webinar series is packed with information vital to the unique responsibilities of the increasingly demanding position.

Part 1: The Open Meetings Act,  Board Meetings and Trustee Demands, and District Liability

Part 2: The Public Information Act, Student Records and FERPA, and Record Retention Practices

Webcast is presented by Heather R. Rutland.

Your district is in the market for a new superintendent. Many of us have never participated in a superintendent search. What are the legal parameters and potential pitfalls? Where do you begin and what are your legal options? Learn the honest truth about hiring a new superintendent from a school attorney who does not do searches.

Topics to be discussed:

Ground Work

• What qualifications are required?
• Options to fill an immediate vacancy.

Hitting the Road

• Deciding upon search options: Do we want to go it alone or use a search firm?
• Legal ramifications for searches.
• What is the role of the board?
• How are firms hired?
• What should be included in search firm contracts?

On your Way

• Creating legal Interview questions.
• How to insure confidentiality.

Selecting the One!

• Salary and contract negotiations.
• What legalities apply to hiring?

This 1-hour webcast is conducted by David P. Hansen.

Many districts have to contend with emergencies arising from property damage caused by weather. Frequently, the emergency is made worse by an insurance company’s denial of the district’s insurance claim.

We are going to discuss three action items you can implement right now to put your district in the best position to deal with an insurance company when such an emergency happens.

This 45-minute webcast is conducted by Darryl W. Pruett.

Business in Texas is booming, and with new companies moving in, 313 agreements between businesses and school districts for tax breaks are becoming more and more popular. What are they, and what does my district need to know if we’re approached to enter into one? We’ll discuss the typical types of agreements from wind farms to cryptomining facilities and tell you what you need to know in order to understand these industries and their potential value to your district.

This webinar will discuss the specifics of these agreements and detail what superintendents and school boards should know before they enter into one. Already been approached with a proposal? This webinar explains the steps that boards must take to successfully execute and continue their 313 agreements.

This 30-minute webcast is presented by Emma J. Darling.

Implementing your district’s policies and programs related to employee illnesses, injuries, and leaves has always been challenging. The laws that impact these programs are constantly evolving, and the employees who work in this area often change too.

This series is a great opportunity for everyone to get up to speed in an accessible and affordable format. Each session covers a specific topic, but they are designed to be taken as a series.

All sessions are presented by Jennifer A. Powell, one of the firm’s shareholders who is Board Certified in Labor and Employment Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

Webcast Series Descriptions

What’s in Your Toolbox, Part 1: Overview of the FMLA and ADA, Including Recent Developments

The Family Medical Leave Act of 1992 and the Americans with Disabilities Act, as amended, are the key federal laws impacting this area. The two laws have been interpreted extensively by the courts, as well as the Department of Labor and EEOC. It is important to be up to date on the requirements of these laws. In this session we cover the basics, as well as some of the nuances and recent developments related to these laws.

What’s in Your Toolbox, Part 2: Overview of the Other Federal and State Laws that Impact Employee Illnesses, Injuries, and Leave

As if the FMLA and ADA were not enough, employers also have to worry about the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 and the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA), as well as provisions in the Texas Education Code and Texas Labor Code, all of which have been interpreted by the courts. In this session we cover these laws and how they interact with the FMLA and ADA.

Let’s Get Our Hands Dirty: Processing Requests for Leave and Monitoring Employee Absences

With a solid understanding of the legal requirements, in this session we will walk through practical scenarios of dealing with employees who are unable to work. Steps taken here can impact the district’s rights with respect to these employees later, so you want to make sure leaves are handled properly from the outset.

Cleaning Up: Returning Employees and Handling Employees Who Cannot Return or Who Need Accommodations

All leaves of absence will come to an end. Some of those employees will be able to return to work without restrictions. Other employees will need accommodations to return. Some employees will not be able to return at all. And some employees will not ever actually need leave to deal with their illnesses or injuries, but will also need accommodations. In this session, we address how to handle all of these scenarios in a way that reduces district liability.

Your district’s bus drivers confront potential legal problems every day. They face student discipline scenarios, special education requirements, and liability issues every time they pull away from the curb. Of course, as District employees, there are also concerns regarding workplace harassment. Arm your employees who enjoy the least immunity with legal information that can save the district from enormous potential litigation exposure.

This is a recorded webcast.

This is the hiring time of year. With all your new employees, do you have your ducks in a row regarding the required Form I-9 and work authorization? I-9 audits are on the rise, and financial penalties for improper documentation can be significant. And if a pattern of violation is uncovered, criminal penalties are possible. This webinar will refresh you regarding what needs to be documented and how to self-audit and correct errors.

2024 Edition

This manual provides practical advice for handling often encountered situations by cheerleader and drill team sponsors.

Topics Covered:

• Social Media and Cyberbullying
• Rights Associated with Extracurricular Activities
• UIL and Coaching Requirements
• Options for Selecting Team Members
• District and Staff Liability & Immunity
• Transportation and Other Travel Issues
• Access to Education Records, Score Cards
• Title IX LGBTQ+
• Relevant Federal and State Court Cases
• Extracurricular Codes of Conduct
• Discipline and Removal from Team
• Cheerleader Constitutions
• Student and Parent Complaints

2021 Updated Edition

Superintendents and board members told us they needed a practical guide that explains their roles, responsibilities, and authority. So, after hundreds of hours of legal work and critical input from an Advisory Committee of board members, superintendents, and Education Service Center personnel, we published our Trustee Manual. It is an exceptional product, not simply because it is our product, but because there is nothing else like it.

• The Manual is organized into six sections: Being A Trustee, Board Meetings, Personnel Issues, Student Issues, Business Issues, and Liability
• Each section has its own supplement of sample forms, motion language, resolutions, and notes
• Legal citations do not appear in the text, but in the ‘Becoming An Expert’ pages at the end of each section
• Sold in sets of eight to emphasize the team relationship between the board and superintendent
• Trustees receive one hour of tier-three Board Member training credit for reading the Manual

Updated to include all significant changes from the 87^th Texas Legislative Session. Older versions of this manual may include out of date information and should not be used.

Note: Members may receive additional hours by receiving a board training. For more information please view our training pages or contact us.

A pamphlet for trustees and administrators who need to know the laws that apply to them when using social media. This resource covers district-specific accounts, campaign pages, and how to handle comments you don’t necessarily like to see. This pamphlet instructs on when one can delete tweets, how to handle keeping posts for public records, and when a page is a public forum or not. Posts are put up in an instant, but lawsuits can drag on forever.

A comprehensive resource for handling Public Information Act requests, from the simple to the insane. This resource includes flow charts to guide you through responding to requests, form letters for common situations, and answers to your most pressing questions. Unsure what qualifies as a request for information? Want to charge for fulfillment of requests? This manual lays it all out for you.

Community support organizations for extracurricular activities-or Booster Clubs-are a valuable complement to the school’s athletic, music, and academic competition programs. Their activities often provide additional financial resources and enrichment for the programs they support, but sometimes the lines between a Booster Club and the school district become blurred. This low-cost booklet is the perfect mechanism to communicate, in easy to read language, the district’s rules for Booster Clubs that support its extracurricular activities. It is designed to supplement the information contained in University Interscholastic League’s (UIL’s) Booster Club Guidelines. A must for all Booster Clubs in your district. Topics addressed include:

• Formation, names and registration guidelines
• Becoming a tax-exempt organization
• Fund-raising and accounting
• Booster Club meetings
• Working with school staff
• Field trips and transportation
• Award restrictions

School administrators often are required to “look into” or “investigate” allegations of wrong-doing by students and employees. This manual can be used in non-Title IX investigations to help you understand why it is important to conduct an investigation in a particular way, as well as provide you form documents and scripts to facilitate recordkeeping and information gathering related to the allegations.

Unique to this product is a series of flow charts that guide you through each phase of an investigation so that critical steps or details that might haunt you later don’t get overlooked.

Revised December 2021.

Note: This manual is provided digitally.

When a formal complaint of sexual harassment under Title IX is filed, the Title IX Coordinator must appoint an individual to investigate the allegations. The Title IX Investigations Manual will walk those investigators through conducting a legally-compliant investigation under Title IX.

Note: This manual is provided digitally.

We have reviewed new legislation, case law, and other regulatory actions and determined that there will be no changes to our Contract Package for the 2024-25 school year.

Districts may only order this UPDATE if they have our 2019-20 Contract Package version or newer.

EWHPM’s Contract Package for 2023-2024 includes language to address proposed bills being considered by the 88^th Legislature related to requiring teachers to prepare lesson plans. The package also provides options for districts to choose between offering traditional 10-month contracts to teachers or offering contracts that address the issue of teachers being asked to work slightly beyond 10 calendar months due to unforeseen circumstances or calendar choices. In addition to these updates, the new package contains the same solid contract provisions it always has, along with a publication explaining the contracting process in detail.

NOTE: If your district has never purchased this package or if your copy is older than 2019-20, you must order the full version at a cost of $350. For information on the version your district has, please contact (800) 488-9045 or information@edlaw.com.

We have reviewed new legislation, case law, and other regulatory actions and determined that there will be no changes to our Contract Package for the 2024-25 school year.

EWHPM’s Contract Package for 2023-2024 includes language to address proposed bills being considered by the 88^th Legislature related to requiring teachers to prepare lesson plans. The package also provides options for districts to choose between offering traditional 10-month contracts to teachers or offering contracts that address the issue of teachers being asked to work slightly beyond 10 calendar months due to unforeseen circumstances or calendar choices. In addition to these updates, the new package contains the same solid contract provisions it always has, along with a publication explaining the contracting process in detail.

NOTE: If your district has never purchased this package or if your copy is older than 2019-20, you must order this version. For information on the version your district has, please contact (800) 488-9045 or information@edlaw.com.

The Texas Family Code lays out a complicated set of rules regarding parental rights. We have taken the Family Code and the IDEA and broken it down into an easy-to-use chart to assist special education staff in determining who has the right to participate and /or make decisions. For example, you will be able to determine if a parent, guardian, surrogate parent, foster parent, other family member or advocate is entitled to:

• Receive written notice to attend an ARD meeting
• Receive a copy of a student’s records
• Request a due process hearing

Answers to these and other difficult questions are on our legal size chart. Footnoted explanations are on the flip side.